Peggy Noonan, a Republican speechwriter (Reagan’s among others), was perplexed last night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart as to “why Rudy fell.”It was a mystery to her.Probably because she gets all her information from FOX News and the other corporate media.

Of course those who’s heads aren’t buried in the corporate idiot box, know that 9/11 truth was Rudy’s demise.

First of all, how did Rudy, a Mayor even become a possible GOP nominee.Corporate media and the Bush Administration began a myth about Rudy Giuliani beginning on 9/11/2001?

Evidence suggests that a quid pro quo may have begun Rudy's ascendance, whereby Rudy would help destroy the WTC steel BEFORE A FORENSIC 9/11 INVESTIGATION COULD OCCUR (by sending it to India and China to be melted down) . . . and in exchange the powers made him President.

Of course that didn’t work out quite the way Rudy wanted.Rudy even began using remains of WTC victims to fill pot holes because he was in such a rabid hurry to get rid of evidence.

Over 6 months ago, when Rudy Giuliani was expected to be a shoe-in for the GOP nomination as Mr. 9/11, he was confronted on the campaign trail by a very courageous young woman, Sabrina Rivero, who’s father died in the 9/11 attacks, and by Luke Rudkowski, and Tom Foti of WeAreChange New York, a 9/11 truth organization.

This video made network news after being posted on YouTube and flying fiercely around the internet.The original video on YouTube has been viewed over 61,000 times, however this video has been posted by others and linked through countless websites and articles.Corporate media tried to laugh it off, but viewers who watched began to re-think Mr. 9/11 Giuliani.

In this video, Giuliani was confronted because he’d told network news on 9/11 that he and his command team had been warned that World Trade Center 7, which mysteriously collapsed at 5:20 pm on 9/11/2001, was about to collapse “before” it actually did.It was not hit by a plane and its damage from the collapse of WTC 1 and 2 was much less severe than other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, which did not collapse.See video of WTC 7 as well as 1 and 2, at:

No one in the world knew that WTC 7 would collapse on 9/11, so Ms. Rivero wanted to know who told Giuliani that it was about to collapse.She also wanted to know why Giuliani didn’t warn people like her father who were present in the WTC complex on 9/11, in order to save lives, rather than just evacuating the building and not warning others.

Giuliani denied having told network news that he knew WTC 7 was going to collapse, and denied anyone told him it would on 9/11, even though it is public knowledge that the Command Center was evacuated by his command crew.Not only did Giuliani know BEFORE it came down that it would come down but police and emergency workers were told by someone it would “blow up.”See Giuliani’s admission he was told, at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4lWM0BECZ8

WTC 7 fell in a classic controlled demolition fashion at near free fall speed of about 7 seconds for a 47 story building, tipping in in the center just like the Vegas hotels we’ve all seen blown on TV.

The BBC oddly enough also knew that WTC 7 was going to collapse, and in fact announced that it HAD ALREADY COLLAPSED 23 minutes BEFORE it actually did (see above video link).When asked by 9/11 truth activists who told the BBC, they replied by mumbling something about “losing” the archive video of 9/11, and being unable to respond to the question.This actually violates BBC law, which requires 3 archived videos of significant events, to be held in 3 separate locations.

CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING VIDEO THAT PROVES THAT THE BBC WAS TOLD 23 MINUTES "BEFORE" WTC 7 WAS TO COLLAPSE, THAT IT ALREADY HAD. The BBC still refuses to tell us who told them what no one else in the world knew.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkFpmZxyWEI

Rudy’s troubles only began with WeAreChange New York confronting him.His troubles continued with 9/11 truth activists around the country. Rudy was confronted at Ground Zero by Sabrina Rivera (daughter of 9/11 victim) and 9/11 truth group WeAreChange at Ground Zero on 9/11/2007.Media was gathered to document this confrontation and Giuliani’s desperate attempts to escape the 9/11 family member.

9/11 truth activists may have influenced the Fire Fighters Unions of New York City as well as Fire Fighter Union members across the nation.Some fire fighters who were at ground zero knew first hand we’d all been lied to about 9/11, as they’d heard blasts and explosions, some before the planes struck, and in lower levels of the buildings before the collapse. I personally emailed information and fire fighter’s testimony as it came out to firefighters union members, officials, and offices not only throughout the United States but throughout the world.

I knew it may have had some impact when I was holding a “What is Bush Hiding About 9/11?Stop the 9/11 Cover Up!” sign, when a Kansas City hook and ladder truck drove by, and blasted its horn and all four firefighters gave me a thumbs up.

Although other firefighters didn’t all come out and accuse Giuliani of being involved or at least a knowing accomplice in the demolition of WTC 7, but the fury firefighters showed for Rudy, indicate that they may have been saavy to it.This may have added fuel to the fire of the spontaneous protests of “9/11 Mayor” Rudy that haunted him throughout the nation.

Rosie O’Donnell and Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, also brought up the inconsistencies with corporate media’s coronation of Rudy as “Mr. 9/11” and his real record on 9/11/2001, which was not only sad but suspicious.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFEDtrEqBPI

These types of videos go on and on.9/11 truth activists are having an impact in our nation, but those who don’t know about it will deny it . . . WHY?Because corporate media denies it. For a fanciful few in America who ONLY get their media from corporate news . . . that is their reality, even though it is not reality.

Reality is that 9/11 truth is growing and gaining strength. So, why did the corporate media and the powers that be allow the fall of Rudy?We know they can be kingmakers by selectively giving good or bad press.We know they can manipulate voting machines, vote counting machines, and even paper votes.

It well may be that they broke their deal with Rudy, even though he did his job and got rid of the WTC forensic evidence.Because as 9/11 truth grew and spread throughout the world, and protests grew larger and more forceful . . . having a President Rudy would keep the demand for 9/11 truth at a fever pitch.The powers that be may have simply dumped their errand boy, to save having to work harder to keep the cover up going.

But 9/11 truth seekers will not give up, they will never give up, so long as the lie stands.

NOW WE NEED TO BREAK THE MEDIA BLOCKADE, TO GET 9/11 TRUTH INTO THE MAINSTREAM DIALOGUE.HOW?

On January 22nd, 2008 an explosive new novel by NY Times best selling author, Steve Alten was released.“The Shell Game” is a powerful truth telling edu-tainment novel that uses real quotes as chapter lead ins including quotes from 9/11 researchers David Ray Griffin and Mike Ruppert. Their books are linked to from the book’s website www.TheShellGame.net and also video trailers that alert Americans they’ve been lied to about the wars and about 9/11.

If you know the nation has been lied to about 9/11, and want millions more to join you in demanding a new 9/11 investigation . . . you have a tremendous opportunity to make that happen. VIEW THE BELOW BOOK TRAILER, AND SHARE IT WIDELY:

Do everything you can for the next 90 days to get as many people as possible to get “The Shell Game” available at all major book stores and sellers.WHY?

If we as a 9/11 truth movement can drive this to #1, we can break 9/11 truth into the mainstream. Now is the time to really dedicate yourself.Use the links and video trailers at www.TheShellGame.net to email, blog, post, and get out any way you can as wide, far and fast as you can.

Urge all you send it to to do the same. We can make history. This successful author has put his career on the line to write this explosive novel. It has 90 days to soar or fall. We can make it #1, and force corporate media to cover 9/11’s lies.

Authors Bio: By William E. Douglas, Jr., who is author of "The Amateur Parent – A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe." Bill has been a guest columnist for the Kansas City Star, The Business Journal, and other media worldwide. His past essays include, "Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts," "The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- US Media's Dirty Little Secret," "Good Night, and Good Luck - WMD, NIST, Popular Mechanics, 9/11 and Media Crimes" and also "Why the Jewish Community Should Demand 9/11 Truth.""

"Since 9 / 11, zionists and warmongers have called for a “digital Pearl Harbor” that will give the U.S. government an excuse to shut down web sites like WUFYS.

Yesterday (30 Jan 08) two fiber-optic cables were cut on the Mediterranean seabed 12 km off Egypt, impeding communications across half the planet. These cables were installed in 2006, and run from Alexandria Egypt to Palermo Sicily. Indian company FLAG Telecom owns one of the cables. SMW-4 owns the other, and links South East Asia to Europe. All traffic goes through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.

Of course Israel was not affected, since Jews have their own cables from Haifa to the Greek island of Crete, and from Tel Aviv to Palermo Sicily. This setup was part of an overall strategy by an Israeli firm called Mediatek, which – along with Comverse Infosys -- provides IT services for the Israeli military and weapons makers.

(Unrelated side note regarding Crete: Palestinians are thought to have originally come from Crete, plus the Aegean Islands, and / or Ionia. They seem related to the Bronze Age Greeks, and originally spoke a language akin to Mycenaean Greek. In the 11th and 12th centuries BC they invaded the Levant. Later the Romans corrupted the name to “Palestina.” Six-hundred years after that, Arabs invaded, and called the region “Falastin.” When the British still controlled Palestine, they referred to natives -- both Arab and Jew -- as Palestinians. On 29 Jan 1968 an Israeli submarine sank off Crete, taking 69 Jews with it. In 1999 the Nauticos Corporation, an American firm out of Hanover, MD found it. In October 2000 the conning tower was brought up and taken to Haifa, where it is now a memorial.)

Yesterday when the cable was severed off Egypt, Dubai's stock exchange almost had to shut down. Egypt lost 60 percent of its Internet service. India lost half its bandwidth, thereby crippling companies all over the world that outsource their call centers and back-office functions to India. Millions of hospital patients in the USA cannot get their X-rays diagnosed, since Indians now do most of this work. About 75 percent of information capacity was destroyed between the Europe and the Middle East.

Satellites only carry about five percent of transoceanic phone calls and data traffic. The other 95 percent goes by undersea fiber-optic cables.

(Trivia: The first trans-Atlantic cable, laid in 1866, carried telegraph messages at only seven words per minute. A twenty-word message cost 20 pounds. Today a single pair of optical fiber strands carries digitized information equivalent to 150 million simultaneous phone calls. Cables are as thick as an ordinary garden hose, and are laid in a trench cut by plow or water jet. The trench is a meter wide, and usually about four meters deep -- but no trench is needed for cables in water deeper than 2,000 meters. Cables near shores need added protection from shipping, and are identified on nautical charts. More information is here. )

Egypt will start repair operations on Feb. 4. For now the goal is to reroute traffic. Service may not be restored for two weeks.

No one knows how the cables were cut. (A ship anchor probably did it.) The point is that it’s an easy matter to deliberately cut undersea cables. A false-flag attack will make governments move to “re-route” the infrastructure in order to “protect the world economy.” Such “re-routing” is impossible, since the “global Infobahn” is too vast, as you can see from this map. Noneheless, governments can use this lame excuse to impose a “two-tired” system that will eliminate web sites such as WUFYS. The government will say it is preventing “hackers” (such as WUFYS readers) from attacking power plants, stock markets, and “critical infrastructure.” It will note that big back-end computers that run power plants (known as SCADA systems, for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) are increasingly linked to front-end business systems. A decade ago, these systems were isolated and arcane, making them impervious to outside hacker attack. Now SCADA systems are increasingly connected to the outside world. They have to be, since they are linked through the Internet.

Iran is aware of this false-flag threat, and has satellite backup systems, but a high-altitude Israeli nuclear blast could impede Iranian satellite communications.

As always, our strength is our vulnerability. The Internet, which awoke so many people to the zio-plague, is also our only source of truth.

Zionists know this. That’s why they have their own network.

On 29 Dec 2006, undersea rockslides from an earthquake damaged seven of the eight cables connected to Taiwan. Telephone and Internet networks toppled like dominoes in Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, and India. Repairs cost $2 million per cut line, and service was not restored for months.

All we need is one false flag attack for Bush to appoint a Cyber-Czar that will monitor the Internet for “anti-Semitic” thought crimes.

FILTERING

Meanwhile -- in addition to the Harman / Lieberman thought-crime legislation (HR 1955 and S 1959) -- WUFYS readers know about the attack on “Net Neutrality.” Telephone companies want to charge extra for Internet use of their phone lines. Phone companies stand to make billions in extra profits, since the Internet now carries 75 percent of all traffic. This will force us to pay more for Internet use, or else we will be shunted to the sidelines and oblivion.

AT&T is totally hooked into the Zionist power base, and is pushing ahead. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, AT&T said it will begin monitoring private traffic over its online network to stamp out “copyright theft.”

Comcast is already doing this. Consumers have complained to the zionist-controlled FCC that Comcast Corp. interferes with Internet traffic.

The telephone companies coordinate their activities with each other, plus the Israeli government and its North American colony. This is necessary, because scanning and filtering might slow traffic at one company, causing customers to go elsewhere, which will make stockholders angry.

Internet providers such as AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon (all Zionist-controlled) want to eliminate Net Neutrality in favor of their own search engines, their Internet phone services, and their streaming video, while blocking competitors and “anti-Semitic” web sites.

Filtering will also exploit the “sex offender” angle. Elliot Spitzer (zionist Jew governor of New York state) is pushing legislation that will force “sex offenders” to reveal their online aliases to the State.

“Sex offenders” include every one of us. The term “sex offender” has become so broad that police use it when they can’t get you on anything else. For example, if a policeman sees you urinating in a city park, the courts will imprison you as a “sex offender.” This broadening will eventually encompass “anti-Semites.”

As usual, Jews hide by getting cooperation from the Goyim. New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo introduced Spitzer’s measure on Tuesday with the support of Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. (Jews everywhere.)

At least 13 other states have introduced legislation that controls the online activities of anti-Semites “sex offenders.” Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arizona, Illinois and Colorado specifically require offenders to provide their Internet communication identities to a state agency or registry system. Jews will steadily expand all this to “protect our children.”

In Allentown, Pennsylvania, about forty students received pornographic images (e.g. a woman’s bare breasts) over their cell phones.

Increased control will “protect our children” (i.e., silence all criticism of Israeli atrocities).

Illegal spying has nothing to do with “terrorism.” The rich Elite pays the NSA to spy on smaller people, thereby getting inside information for stock trades, sports gambling, etc. Weapons makers use NSA spying when they compete with other companies for government contracts. This happens in all countries that have wiretap programs. France has complained about it for years. The National Security Agency is a wiretap-for-hire firm that refers to its information as a commercial “product.”

Those who keep quiet about this get privileges. Those who blab get prison.

Here’s an example:

Eleven days after the Bush regime was installed in the White House, Michael Hayden – head of the National Security Agency – called a meeting with the five biggest U.S. phone companies: AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, SBC, and Qwest. Hayden wanted complete listings on all Americans, plus continual updates on Americans’ habits.

(In addition to spying on people so the rich can get richer, the government monitors overall communications patterns for anomalies in the traffic flow. When computers detect unusual activity, the NSA listens to specific targets.)

In return, Hayden offered to pay the phone companies in cash, and in government contracts.

BellSouth and Verizon immediately took the deal, being headed by zionist Jews (F. Duane Ackerman and Ivan Seidenberg, respectively). C. Michael Armstrong of AT&T eventually agreed, as did SBC’s Ed Whitacre. (AT&T later bought SBC). An ATT Solutions logbook confirms the “Pioneer-Groundbreaker” spy project started on February 1, 2001.

However, Qwest hesitated, knowing that Hayden’s request was highly illegal. Under Section 222 of the Communications Act, first passed in 1934, telephone companies may not give out customer information. What if Q-West got sued, or fined? Hayden was demanding millions of records. The fines could have been massive. Who would get this information? How would Qwest be protected from fines and lawsuits?

Hayden knew that Qwest had 19 million customers in 14 states. If Hayden could not get Qwest’s cooperation, the Bush regime and its Elitist friends would not be able to monitor all Americans.

Qwest's lawyers asked Hayden to get clearance from the FIA court. Hayden refused, knowing the FISA courts would deny him.

The FISA court itself was established in 1978 because the NSA had illegally spied on Americans for over 20 years at the behest of the CIA and other agencies. The spy campaign was code-named "Shamrock."

Qwest attorneys then asked Hayden to get a letter from the U.S. attorney general's office, so Qwest would be protected. Again Hayden refused.

Then Hayden played hardball, threatening to pull government contracts from Qwest.

The head of Qwest was Frank Nacchio, a former executive at AT&T. The more Hayden and the NSA threatened him, the more Nacchio demanded some kind of government protection.

Nacchio was chairman of Bush’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.He was supposed to be an insider. His questions were a “betrayal” of Bush. Therefore Hayden and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to make an example of Nacchio by having the SEC charge him with insider stock trading.

At his hearing, Nacchio tried to explain how he was being punished because of the NSA deal, but U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham refused to allow this evidence in court. Nottingham also ordered all of Nacchio’s comments about this during his trial to be redacted from court documents.

On 27 July 2007, Nacchio was fined $19 million and sentenced to six years in prison. Judge Nottingham denied Nacchio’s request to be granted bail while Nacchio appealed his conviction. In 2009, Nacchio will also be hit with a civil trial.

Note: Nacchio resigned from Qwest in June 2002, but Qwest's legal questions remained about the illegal NSA request. Therefore, in addition to Nacchio, the Bush regime charged eight other (former) Qwest executives with fraud. The regime wanted its message to be loud and clear: obey or go to prison.

On 11 May 2006, USA Today revealed that U.S. phone companies were helping the NSA to illegally spy on Americans. Bush said the NSA was only monitoring international calls to “terrorists.” Bush called this his “terrorists surveillance program.” He claimed (falsely) that it did not start until after 9/11. Simultaneously, Bush moved Michael Hayden out of the NSA and appointed him head the CIA.

In December 2006, the New York Times revealed that Bush was lying again. The NSA was spying on all Americans, using data provided by phone companies. The following month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T for helping the NSA spy on American citizens.

Nacchio did engage in insider stock trading that hurt investors, but he would have been protected if he had obeyed the Bush regime.

The top players in the Enron scandal are protected. Last week (22 Jan 08) the U.S. Supreme Court ended one million investors’ chances to sue major investment banks that collaborated in the Enron scandal. These banks include Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse, First Boston, and Barclays Bank PLC. (Investors have already settled for $7.3 billion from JPMorgan, Chase & Co., Citigroup, and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.) The banks entered into partnerships and transactions that let Enron take liabilities off its books, recording revenue from the deals, when Enron was actually incurring debt.

Enron’s collapse in December 2001 wiped out thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in market value, and more than $2 billion in pension plans.

But that’s okay, since Ken Lay, the head of Enron, was a close friend of Bush.

By the way, Nacchio’s successor at Qwest, Richard Notebaert (Jewish?) fully cooperates with the Bush regime."

NETUREI KARTA of THE ORTHODOX JEWRY

JERUSALEM, PALESTINE

Jan 31.08

URGENT PRESS RELEASE

In the past week the so-called Chief Rabbi of the so-called State of "Israel", Yona Metzger, has made vicious and provocative statements asserting that the Palestinians living in Gaza should be moved from their homes into the Sinai Desert.

Yona Metzger is not an authentic rabbi, despite the fact that he carries the title of “Chief Rabbi”. Chief rabbis of the Zionist State only carry legitimacy in the eyes of Zionist Jews. His status as a rabbi is not unlike the leadership of Theodor Herzl, who also wore a beard!

The State of “Israel” is an illegitimate rogue regime whose very existence is leading the world to World War III. Palestinians have an inherent right, guaranteed under international and moral law, to return to their land in historic Palestine and to establish their independent state in the entire Holy Land, which was forcefully taken from them by the Zionists. Indeed, many Gazans are refugees who were expelled from other areas of Palestine by the Zionists ever since 1948.

Chief rabbis of the Zionist state, whether Metzger or anyone else, are merely very well-paid stooges of the Zionists and serve their Zionist masters without regard for the welfare of the Jewish People, the Palestinians, or any other nation in the world.

The Chief Rabbinate of the Zionist State, just as all Zionist institutions, has importance only because of its coercive power over the religious, economic and everyday life of the Jewish residents of Zionist-occupied Palestine. Whoever recognizes and supports the Zionist State, even innocently, has been taken over by the heretical Zionist movement, no matter how large the halo that it is granted by Orthodox rabbis.

Chief rabbis, and other rabbis who support the existence of the Zionist state, are wicked emissaries of Evil. Such “rabbis” promote hatred and war, and use their coercive powers to demand subservience of Jews to the Zionist enterprise. This description of such people has been the long-standing position of authentic rabbis for the last century.

Yona Metzger, like all Zionist rabbis, expresses feelings of cruelty and inhumanity which originates in his loyalty to the cult of Zionism, is perfectly prepared to sacrifice Jewish lives on the altar of his idolatry, the State of “Israel.” Any moral person would much prefer to see the Zionist warmongers, including Metzger, removed from the Holy Land. METZGER AND ALL ZIONIST RABBIS DO NOT REPRESENT THE JEWISH RELIGION.

We urgently appeal to the leaders of the world nations, especially the great powers, to stop supporting the Zionist regime. Many nations believe that supporting Zionism shows friendship to the Jewish People. This is incorrect! True friendship to the Jewish People can be demonstrated by saving all the peoples of the Middle East, including Jews, from the bloodthirsty machinations of the dangerous Stateof “Israel” and by dismantling the Zionist regime entirely.

May Almighty G-d protect us from the influence of Zionism in general, their evil warmongering bloodthirsty leaders, and from their wicked servants who call themselves “rabbis.”

During the “Political Grapevine” segment of Fox News’s Special Report last night, host Brit Hume noted the negative criticism that the town of Brattleboro, VT has received for a petition calling for President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to be arrested. Chuckling so much he could hardly contain himself, Hume recounts how “one caller from Minnesota” told the town clerk “he’d like to see terrorists cut off the heads of town officials.” Watch it:

Four Thoughts on Wednesday's Republican Debate

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 9:38 PM

By Andrew Romano

SIMI VALLEY, California--Here's what I took away from tonight's face-off between the four remaining Republican candidates at the Ronald Reagan Library:

1. The Dynamic: Before South Carolina and Florida, the GOP race was a four-man muddle. But tonight marked the start of a mano-a-mano sprint to finish between McCain and Romney. It's a whole new race. Free to focus their fire on each other, the frontrunner (McCain) and the challenger (Romney) defined the dynamic that will determine the Republican nomination: character vs. conservatism.

Romney wants the contest to center on conservative cred, which is why he unloaded on McCain for sponsoring "a number of pieces of legislation where his views are out of the mainstream, at least in my view, of conservative Republican thought": McCain-Lieberman (cap-and-trade), McCain-Kennedy (immigration) and McCain-Feingold (campaign finance reform). Romney's goal? To convince anti-McCain conservatives to coalesce around his candidacy, providing a powerful brake to Mac's post-Florida momentum.

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McCain, on the other hand, wants Super Tuesday voters to compare his character to Romney's. Which is why he took Romney to task for hedging on the surge while the Arizona senator "unequivocally put [his] career and [his] political fortunes on the line... to support" Bush's policy. The implication: that Mitt doesn't have the cojones to lead in a time of terror.

So who's dominating the tug-of-war? I'm going to say McCain. While Romney raised valid questions about his rival's conservative "apostasies"--questions, I should note, that the senator largely dodged (the one on his opposition to the Bush tax cuts was particularly blatant)--it's not like many voters expect the "maverick" McCain to tow the party line. Romney is telling people a story they already know. But when McCain questions Romney's character, he's not only drawing a contrast--he's reminding voters that Romney, a moderate back in Massachusetts, has tacked to the right on key conservative issues like abortion, gay rights, immigration and abortion. (Did I mention abortion?) According to McCain, Romney is casting stones from a glass house--and his lack of consistency (read: character) also undermines his conservative cred.

This was Romney's last best chance to reorient the race before Super Tuesday--but he spent most of the night defending or clarifying his positions (especially on Iraq, McCain's strong suit). Not helpful.

2. The Personalities: I thought Anderson Cooper's first question--"In terms of the economy, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?"--provided a fascinating window on the candidate's contrasting personalities.

Romney basically refused to answer, immediately changing the subject to his record as governor of Massachusetts; it was as if his CPU detected political danger and automatically emitted a distracting flurry of talking points (The rather ineffectual Cooper even called him on the dodge, asking, "Are you running for governor or are you running for president?")

McCain hedged, saying "you could argue that Americans overall are better off" but admitting that "things are tough"; he was the cautious frontrunner struggling not to alienate any potential supporters with divisive "straight talk."

Huckabee scored points on candor--he started his answer with a frank "I don't think we are"--but distinguished himself by acknowledging the existence of, you know, actual human beings: the folks "driving trucks" and struggling to pay for fuel and the "families... that don't have a paycheck." That sort of empathy--even when it borders on sappy--is at the heart of his appeal.

And Ron Paul was the only one who sounded like a person instead of a politician--no small feat for a presidential candidate. "No, no, we're not better off," he said. "We're worse off, but it's partially this administration's fault and it's the Congress."

3. The Petulance: What was up with Huckabee using all of his air time... to whine about not getting enough air time? "I'd appreciate maybe a question that we could talk about that would involve some of us down here at the end," he said when offered the floor, then repeated the complaint a few minutes later: "a while ago, you said you were going to shower me with questions, and I think then you turned the spigot off." It's a valid concern, but Huckabee had to know that the moderators would focus on McCain and Romney. C'est la vie CNN. He was so insistent, in fact, that it seemed inauthentic--like a strategy for earning sympathy instead of actual chagrin. Huckabee's usually even-keeled; this made him look small. And McCain came close to crossing the line a couple of times, too--especially when he "praised" Romney as a "fine man" by saying, "I think he managed companies, and he bought, and he sold, and sometimes people lost their jobs." Ick. Too many moves like that and McCain looks like a typical pol--which completely undermines his appeal.

4. Ron Paul: My favorite moment of the night? When Paul tsk-tsked Romney and McCain for sniping over Iraq strategy--an area where their positions are largely indistinguishable. "I find it rather silly, because they're arguing technicalities of a policy they both agree with," he said. "They agreed with going in; they agreed for staying, agreed for staying how many years? And these are technicalities. We should be debating foreign policy." The other candidates--not to mention reporters--often dismiss the Good Doctor, but as the field narrows, I have to say: it's fun to watch him give them a hard time. He was certainly talking sense tonight."

Blog note: As I live in Massachusetts, even the local paper is a killer today.

They had full page bios on Buckahee, McCain and Romney, but no Ron Paul -- after calling Ron Paul paranoid in an editorial the day before.

It never ends, readers; however, it saddens me that the Zionist control is so complete -- even down to the local level.

"The United States continues to violate basic human rights by keeping secret detention facilities abroad, holding people illegally as "disappeared" and justifying torture, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday.

The Human Rights Watch World Report 2008 found no improvement in the human rights situation in the United States, despite efforts by the US Congress to end the alleged abuses carried out in its war on terrorism.

"There was no evident progress concerning the treatment of so-called enemy combatants, including those held at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), or the use of secret detention facilities" in foreign countries, HRW said.

The Pentagon in 2007 released more than 100 "war on terror" detainees held in the prison facility at the US Navy base in eastern Cuba, but 305 continue to be imprisoned there, most of them without having been formally charged.

After the 2006 legislative elections that put Democrats in charge of both houses of Congress, a bill restoring Guantanamo prisoners' right to habeas corpus was proposed but has yet to be approved.

HRW said in its report that by announcing in April that a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisoner had been transferred to Guantanamo, the Pentagon made it clear there still were US detention facilities around the world.

The rights group said it believed 39 people were being held in US secret detention facilities and recalled that the US government had admitted to holding 100 prisoners in all.

"Under international law those persons remain unlawfully 'disappeared' until the United States can account for them," the report said.

And despite congressional pressure forcing the Pentagon to adopt new rules for prisoner interrogations to preclude torture-like abuses, HRW said the US government continues to justify such techniques in certain cases.

"The CIA contends that it is not bound by these rules, and the (US) administration has gone to great lengths to justify the CIA's continued use of certain techniques banned for use by the military," said the report.

On the domestic front, HRW said 2.2 million people were imprisoned in 2007 in the United States, a 500 percent increase over the past 30 years and equivalent to five times the entire prison population of Britain.

In addition to having the largest prison population in the world, the report added, the United States imprisoned blacks at a rate 6.5 times higher than that of whites.

HRW also found that undocumented foreigners faced greater risk of arrest in the United States, had difficulty in asserting their legal rights in court and were imprisoned under sometimes abusive conditions.

The report also criticized US laws listing people convicted of sexual offenses in a national sexual offender registry that turns them into social pariahs with little chance of finding employment or housing, and making them the target of violence."

Life in Rafah, Gaza’s southern-most city, has always been difficult. But the period since March 2006 has been the worst in my 25-year life. Israel placed Gaza under a siege after Hamas won the Palestinian elections and tightened the siege after Palestinians captured an Israeli soldier near Rafah in late June 2006. We have had little electricity, fuel, money, food or medicine since.

We felt some hope last week, however, when Palestinians knocked down the wall that Israel built along Rafah’s border with Egypt, allowing us to escape our prison and cross to Egypt to buy essential goods.

The Israeli Army has destroyed about 2,000 homes in Rafah in the last seven years. In January 2004 they demolished our home. My grandmother, aunt, uncles and cousins had gathered in our house because their homes had just been demolished. Then an Israeli bulldozer started destroying our home. I helped my grandmother because she has trouble walking. My mother passed out, so I dragged her to a safer place. That day Israeli bulldozers destroyed 50 homes in our neighborhood.

When the siege intensified in late June 2006, my family and I were trapped for 14 days along with 4,000 Gazans at the Rafah border crossing trying to enter Gaza from Egypt, because Israel had closed the border. We had little food or water. Nine people died. Finally, armed men from Gaza broke the border wall, allowing us to return home.

But the last months have been the hardest, with the borders sealed, growing poverty, dwindling supplies of food, medicine and other goods, and parts of Gaza without electricity due to lack of fuel. Israel’s military kills Palestinian fighters and civilians almost daily.

We are waiting for our destiny. Slow death or fast death, it’s the same result. Last week eight-year-old Huda from Rafah told me, “I have kidney problems and need to visit the hospital three times a week, and now the Israelis are threatening to shut off the electricity. That means I will die.”�

Many times, I’ve said my heart must be stronger. I stopped every voice that told me that I can’t write, that said people will not understand me; I’ve stopped every fear that says things will never change, because there are always ways to live and to change. My people have a great deal of courage, but what is happening is very hard.

I am no longer the person I was before these experiences. When the Israelis kill innocent people, they turn the children of those killed into different people. It is not hard to guess whether these will become kind children, or sad children ready for revenge.

Still, when I look at our children, I somehow feel everything will change for the better someday. Every one of us can change things in small ways and make the sun shine, even in a dark box like Gaza.

Three a.m. on Jan. 23rd was a moment of victory. Rafah’s wall on the border with Egypt was gone. I could barely wait to see it. I wanted to see the smile on every Palestinian face that has been missing for a long time.

Yes, my children, now you can see Egypt. The wall is gone, and one day all the walls will be gone.

Nine-year-old Amal and 11-year-old Yasmine told me, “Remember when we told you it’s our dream to see Egyptian children, play with them and see Egypt? We went there and bought sweets and chips, but we didn’t see children.”�

Mohammed, 22, from Rafah, explained, “It doesn’t matter who destroyed the wall, Hamas or Fatah. It was rubbish the Israeli army left behind. I hope the crossing will be opened to movement in a legal way, not like this.”�

When I visited the United States in 2006, people asked why Palestinians voted for Hamas. Some in the Palestinian Authority were corrupt. They lost people’s trust. The U.S. government sent observers to monitor our elections and accepted Hamas’s participation. Hamas won democratically. For years Hamas built social infrastructure and improved people’s daily lives. Hamas needed to be given a chance. Instead, the world punished us.

I think that if ordinary people in the U.S. and Europe knew what was happening to ordinary Palestinians, they would be more compassionate. We need food, water, homes, work and access to the world. We need justice. And when ordinary Palestinians have justice, there will be peace.

Fida Qishta, an educator and journalist, is the founder and manager of the Lifemakers Center, which serves 70 children aged 6-18 in Rafah.

Life in occupied Gaza was never easy, but conditions worsened markedly after Hamas' surprise January 2006 electoral victory. Israel refused recognition along with the US and the West. All outside aid was cut off, an economic embargo and sanctions were imposed, and the legitimate government was isolated. Stepped up repression followed along with repeated IDF incursions, attacks and arrests. Gaza's people have been imprisoned in their own land and traumatized for months. No one outside the Territories cares or offers enough aid. Things then got worse.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, in league with Israel and the US, declared a "state of emergency last June 14 and illegally dismissed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his national unity government. On June 15, he appointed former IMF and World Bank official Salam Fayyad prime minister even though his party got only 2% of the votes in the 2006 election. On June 17, Abbas swore in a new (illegitimate) 13 member "emergency" cabinet with plans for future elections, excluding Hamas.

Israel and the US showed gratitude. The West Bank embargo ended, Israel began releasing frozen Palestinian tax funds, and the US and European Union (EU) resumed aid to the PA but continued isolating Hamas in Gaza that since 1995 has been designated a terrorist organization. After passage of the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the State Department included Hamas among the first 30 groups designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) in October 1997. It makes it illegal to provide funds or other material support. It also ignores how Israel once embraced Hamas in the 1980s.

It's name means courage and bravery, and it's also an abbreviation of Islamic Resistance Movement in Arabic. It grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood (that had roots in Egypt) and was formed in 1987 during the first Intifada. At the time, Israel offered support and used Hamas to counter the PLO's nationalist threat under Arafat. Ever since, it's been an effective resistance movement against repression, occupation and much more. It provides essential social services like medical clinics; education, including centers for women; free meals for children; financial and technical help to Palestinians whose homes Israel destroyed; aid to refugees in the camps; and youth and sports clubs for young people.

Hamas is also a formidable defender, and that gets it in trouble. It established the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, an elite military wing, and other security forces like its Tanfithya Executive Force for self-defense and law enforcement. Washington and Tel Aviv call it "terrorism" because Hamas wants the occupation ended, won't surrender its sovereignty like Fatah did under Arafat and Abbas, is willing to recognize Israel (though that's never reported), but only if Palestinians get equal recognition and what's rightfully theirs - an independent homeland inside pre-1967 borders or one "state for all its citizens," Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and others.

Instead, Hamas got isolated, hammered and called a "hostile entity" by Israel's security cabinet. It was announced on September 19, sanctions on Gaza were tightened, and it was decided to "reduce the amount of megawattage provide(d) to the Strip, and Hamas will have to decide whether to provide electricity to hospitals or weapons lathes." There was more as well - cutbacks in fuel, food, other essentials and even tighter border crossing restrictions.

Even before the latest crisis, Gaza was devastated. Its industrial production was down 90%, and its agricultural output was half its pre-2007 level. In addition, nearly all construction stopped, unemployment and poverty topped 80%, and by now it may be 90%. After September 19, it got worse when shops began running out of everything. Israel allows in only nine basic materials, their availability is spotty, and some essentials are banned, like certain medicines, and others restricted like fruit, milk and other dairy products. Before June 2007, 9000 commodities could be imported. Today, it's down to 20, people don't get enough food, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was unusually blunt in its criticism. In a November 2007 report called "Dignity Denied in the Occupied Palestinian Territories," it said:

"....Palestinians....face hardship (in) their (daily) lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. (They) face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day (and the people of Gaza are) trapped (and) sealed off." The "humanitarian cost (is) enormous," people can barely survive, "families unable to get enough food increased by 14%, (and) Palestinians (are) being trampled underfoot day after day. (In) Gaza (under siege, Palestinians) continue to pay for conflict and economic containment with their health and livelihoods. Cutting power and fuel further compounds their hardship."

Let 'em eat cake, walk, and live without light or heat is apparently Israel's solution, and noted Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, took note. He calls it "genocide....to describe what the Israeli army is doing in the Gaza Strip." Knowing the facts, who can disagree.

Then there's the matter of energy. With electricity restricted and fuel supplies reduced, Israel went further. It sealed its borders and cut all fuel shipments in response to Palestinian rocket attacks in and around the border town of Sderot. They're fired in self-defense and used in response to repeated Israeli attacks that in the week of January 17 - 23 alone:

-- killed 19 Palestinians along with three others from previous IDF-inflicted wounds;

-- extra-judicially executed seven of the victims, including two women;

-- wounded 71 Palestinians, including 24 children and three women;

-- made 33 IDF incursions in the West Bank and five in Gaza;

-- arrested 58 Palestinian civilians, including seven children, in the West Bank, and 32 in Gaza, including 3 children;

-- destroyed five homes and razed agricultural land in Jabalya in northern Gaza;

-- allowed further settler attacks against civilians and property in Hebron.

The same pattern continued the following week through Janauary 30 with more Israeli incursions, attacks and arrests. In the West Bank:

-- Nablus was targeted and several Palestinian civilians arrested; several homes were also searched and ransacked in the villages of Kufer Kalil, Beit Dajan and Beit Fourik;

-- the IDF seized six Palestinians in Jenin in a pre-dawn invasion; another followed theire several days later, the Israeli army opened fire randomly, one civilian was injured, four others arrested and a home was ransacked; several civilian homes were attacked and ransacked in the town of Qabatiya and village of Abu Da'eif in the northern West Bank; local sources reported unprovoked random gunfire by heavily armed troops in civilian neighborhoods;

-- the IDF invaded Bethlehem, killed one civilian, arrested another, and injured seven others; eyewitnesses reported that local journalists were prevented from witnessing and documenting the incursion;

-- several other West Bank cities were targeted and six civilians arrested: the Al Toor neighborhood in northern Jerusalem; the village of Beit Rima near Ramallah; Tulkarem city and the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp; and Jenin city.

These are malicious acts of aggression, abductions and wanton killing. Mostly civilians are targeted, and when Palestinians respond with crude Qassam rockets and children throw rocks, it's called "terrorism." Israel's response - fiercer attacks and incursions in the Territories on any pretext or none at all and further tightening of its medieval siege on Gaza.

Its border crossings have been closed since June 2007, and severe restrictions were imposed on movement. Finally, food and fuel supplies were cut. Gaza's power plant exhausted its supply, shut down, and the Strip went dark on January 20. Israel remained defiant, and Prime Minister Olmert announced...."as far as I am concerned, every resident of Gaza can walk because they have no gasoline for their vehicles," and Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arye Meckel, told AP the blackout was "a Hamas ploy to pretend there is some kind of crisis to attract international sympathy."

The Director of Gaza's main Shiffa hospital, Dr. Hassan Khalaf, had a different view. He described the situation as "potentially disastrous." Already Israel's siege was directly responsible for 45 deaths, and he said cutting hospital power would cause 30 premature babies to die immediately. The World Health Organization was also alarmed. It said insufficient electricity "disrupt(s)....intensive care units, operating theatres, and emergency rooms (and) power shortages have interrupted refrigeration of perishable medical supplies, including vaccine."

To operate at full capacity, Gaza needs 230 - 250 daily megawatts of electricity. Its only power plant supplies around 30% of it, but people in central Gaza and Gaza city are totally dependent on what can't be supplied if industrial diesel fuel the plant depends on is cut off. The result is critically ill people are endangered, bread and other baked goods can't be produced without electricity to power ovens, food is already in short supply, so is fresh water, and sanitation conditions are disastrous.

Michele Mercier of the International Red Cross said hospital medications were running out and wouldn't "last for more than two or three days." In addition, allowable food shipments are endangered according to UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman, Christopher Gunness. He explained that the agency would have to suspend distribution to 860,000 people because of a fuel and plastic bags shortage.

Israel was unapologetic with Internal Security Minister, Avi Dichter, saying the IDF must "eliminate the rocket fire from Gaza, irrespective of the cost to Palestinians." Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, added: "We are impacting the overall quality of life in Gaza and destroying the terror infrastructure." He meant civilians as did Ehud Olmert claiming: "We are trying to hit only those involved in terrorism, but also signaling to the population in Gaza that it cannot be free from responsibility for the situation."

Israel makes no distinction between civilians (including women and children) and resistance fighters, and B'Tselem stated that Yuval Diskin, head of the Israel Security Agency (ISA), "defines every Palestinian killed in the Gaza Strip as a terrorist," including small children and the elderly infirm. The world approves, the Security Council debates and abstains, the dominant media is silent, and innocent Palestinians suffer and die - over 75 killed in January and several hundred injured. Who cares and who's counting. They're just Arab Muslims.

They're also needy human beings, now desperate, and on January 23 they responded courageously. No help is coming so Hamas acted preemptively. It destroyed 200 meters of metal barrier separating both sides of Rafah that was divided in 1982 as part of Israel's peace treaty with Egypt. About 40,000 people live in Egypt and another 200,000 in Gaza in the original town and an adjacent refugee camp. Until the outbreak of the second Intifada in September, 2000, crossing both ways was uncomplicated. That ended as violence increased, and Israel erected a barrier. Now it's breached, Gazans took advantage, and some called it a "jail break." Hundreds of thousands entered Egypt for needed essentials unavailable at home. Finally, the media noticed.

On January 24, The New York Times tried to have it both ways. It called Hamas' border breach "an act of defiance" and continued indifferently. Unmindful of an 18 month siege, mass impoverishment, a humanitarian crisis and daily killings, correspondent Steven Erlanger made things seem festive in his report. Almost flippantly he said "Tens of thousands of Palestinians.... crossed the border for a 'buying spree' of medicine, cement, sheep....gasoline, soap and countless other supplies that have been cut off."

Most Gazans can barely afford food and essentials and struggle daily to survive. Yet, Erlanger said they stocked up on "Coca-Cola, Cleopatra and Malimbo cigarettes, and satellite dishes" and on January 25 added "televisions (and) washing machines." It was a party, "Egyptian merchants greeted them with a 'cornucopia of consumer goods," and Hamas joined the festivities by "mak(ing no) visible effort to control or tax" purchases. Those who could afford it indeed took advantage. Merchants bought items for resale at lower Egyptian prices. Most Palestinians, however, bought essentials - food, fuel, medicine if available and various household items.

Earlier on January 21, Israel relented to international pressure and a PR disaster impossible to ignore. Haaretz highlighted it in a January 26 editorial headlined "The siege of Gaza has failed." Hamas ended it "via a well-planned operation and simultaneously won the sympathy of the world, which has forgotten the rain of Qassam rockets on Sderot, (and Israel looks foolish) entrenching itself in positions that look outdated." Only a week ago, the government was crowing. Triumphantly, it claimed its policy was "bearing fruit."

Today, it's all bitter with Olmert in denial. In a speech at the January Herzliya Conference, he said: "Mistakes were made; there were failures. But in addition, lessons were learned, mistakes were corrected, modes of behavior were changed, and above all, the decisions we have made since then have led to greater security, greater calm and greater deterrence than there had been for many years." Haaretz had another view, and it was harsh. It stated events in Gaza "completely (contradict) his statements. If that is what learning lessons looks like, if that is what deterrence means, the Olmert government has precious little to boast about." So it acted.

AP reported on January 21 that authorities "agreed today to ship diesel fuel and medicine into Gaza on a one-time basis," easing its blockade, but it wouldn't continue unless rocket firings stopped. Everything then changed on January 27.

Aljazeera, The New York Times, Haaretz and other sources reported that the Olmert government relented. It agreed to resume fuel shipments to Gaza, easing its blockade. The decision came on the same day Israel's Supreme Court addressed the petition of 10 human rights organizations to order a resumption and prevent a humanitarian disaster. No decision was rendered, but state authorities acted anyway.

They agreed to supply 2.2 million weekly liters of industrial diesel fuel, the minimum amount needed to power central Gaza and Gaza City, but it's not enough overall according to Rafiq Maliha, the project manager at An-Nuseirat's power plant location. It's only two-thirds the amount needed, a mere fraction was delivered the first day, and Maliha said Gaza's gas companies would strike and resist this "Israeli plot" masquerading as humanitarian aid. His doubts are well-founded. On the same day fuel shipments resumed, Israeli warplanes struck northern Gaza in two separate raids. Hamas sources said two missiles hit a Palestinian car and others targeted a Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades position causing four injuries.

Human rights groups are also dismissive. They noted previous promises made, then broken, and the GISHA group (the Israeli NGO for freedom of Palestinian movement in the Territories) spokesperson said that Israel "repeatedly promised that it would ship 2.2 million litres (of fuel) a week into Gaza and has repeatedly broken that promise." Why believe authorities now, and with events so fluid it seems every day, a new policy.

At the same time, Hamas and Egyptian security forces are cooperating to close the border eight days after it was breached. On January 28, Haaretz reported that openings were being sealed by barbed wire, but not entirely as some two-way traffic continues as of January 30. Hamas and Egyptian forces now man the main Salah Eddin gate, most cars and trucks aren't passing through, but pedestrians still in Egypt "scoured (nearly) empty stores for food and consumer products to take back to the Gaza Strip....in fear of an imminent border reclosing."

What's next is anyone's guess, but Israel's Supreme Court will affect it. On January 30, it upheld the government's Gaza sanctions and its right to restrict fuel and electricity. In its statement, the three-judge panel left no doubt where it stands. It wrote:

"We emphasize that the Gaza Strip is controlled by a 'murderous terror group' that operates incessantly to strike the state of Israel and its citizens, and violates every precept of international law with its violent actions." Israel, nonetheless, will supply enough fuel and electricity to "fulfill the vital humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip at this time."

Israeli human rights petitioners were quick to respond, and their message was clear and harsh. For its part, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights called the ruling a "dangerous legal precedent that allows Israel to continue to violate the rights of Gaza residents and deprive them of basic humanitarian needs in violation of international law." Hamas spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum, was equally pointed. He added: The High Court's decision "reflects the criminal, ugly face of the occupation."

Things are now back to square one, Israel's siege has been sanctified, and an unworkable 2005 security arrangement remains in place. Hamas wants it replaced with a new one and demands justice for Gaza's 1.5 million people. Its main objection is Israel controls all movement and monitors it with cameras and computers to track everyone entering and leaving Gaza. On January 27, Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said: 'We don't accept a continued Israeli veto on the movement, the exit and entry through Rafah." It's time for a new system.

Getting one is another matter, according to Israeli officials. They commented on January 28 saying "Israel will not allow the continuation of the current state where its security interests are being compromised," and Olmert and Abbas met on January 27 to discuss it. Initial reports were that Israel wanted Egypt to control the border, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wants Abbas to do it, he, in turn, agrees to anything Olmert and George Bush want, and they at first rejected putting Abbas in charge, but that's now changed according to Haaretz.

On January 29, it reported "Israel does not plan to block....Abbas from assuming control of Gaza's border crossing with Egypt (if Cairo agrees)." Abbas, in turn, says it does as well as the EU, Arab League and Condoleezza Rice. Hamas reacted angrily through its spokesperson, Sami Abu-Zuhri. He called the plan an "Israeli-led international conspiracy (against the legitimate government) with the participation of some regional parties. We tell all parties that we will not allow the return of old conditions at the crossing."

So the beat goes on. Nothing has changed, and unconsidered is what Palestinians want, need and deserve. After decades of abuse, forces they can't control continue buffeting them, yet they persist and endure.

Now there's the latest crisis, and consider Haaretz's January 27 report. It was after Olmert and Abbas met "for a two-hour tete-a-tete....in Jerusalem" at which Olmert again made promises. He said Israel wouldn't let a humanitarian crisis develop in Gaza, when, in fact, one has existed for months, his government caused it, and it's accompanied by daily attacks, killings, arrests and a vast array of human rights abuses against an isolated population barely hanging on.

On January 23, various Palestinian factions met in Damascus with plenty to say. With little hope of being heeded, they called on Abbas to end the "ridiculous" negotiations he insists must continue with Olmert. Among those attending were Khaled Meshaal of Hamas and Ramadan Shallah of Islamic Jihad. Their message was strong: "I want to ask our brothers in Ramallah (Fatah headquarters), what exactly are you waiting for?" While you're talking, Palestinians in "the biggest prison in history (are) being massacred."

Even Abbas supporters are dubious, and Palestinian writer, Hani Al-Masri, expressed their view: "It doesn't make sense for negotiations to continue while Israel is changing facts on the ground and undermining the chances for a just and acceptable solution." The Arab League also responded, but not with teeth. It denounced Israel's siege, but does nothing to end it. That's Hamas' view with Khaled Meshaal saying the League could force change but instead prefers words, meetings, resolutions and more meetings in Arab capitals.

Still more are planned. Cairo is involved. So are the Saudis, but most of all Washington and Tel Aviv. They control everything and will decide what's next with one thing assured. Gazans are isolated, locked in the Territory, children and the elderly are dying, so are the sick without medical care, daily attacks kill others, and no end is in sight.

The plight of Palestinians won't change as things continue lurching from one crisis to another the way they have for decades. It won't end until world leaders buckle to growing world sentiment that no longer will injustices this grave be tolerated. How much more suffering must be endured, how many more deaths are acceptable, when will justice finally be served? People of conscience want answers. It's about time they got them.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Hundreds of protesters rallied tonight in front of the Lakeshore Theatre on north Broadway to picket a benefit for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Force.

The Chicago protest was initiated by ISM-Chicago and endorsed by the Palestine Solidarity Group, the West Suburban Faith-based Peace Coalition, Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine, the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism, the Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies, the Gay Liberation Network, the International Socialist Organization, Students for Justice in Palestine-UIC, Students for a Democratic Society-UIC, and ANSWER Chicago.

Chicago’s Palestinian and Arab American communities showed up in force, despite the threatening weather, to demand an end to the latest criminal Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Roughly half a dozen counter-protesters gathered in front of the theater entrance holding Israeli and U.S. flags. Their chants of ‘dirty Arabs’ and similar epithets were routinely shouted down with chants condemning Israeli state terror and occupation.

One protester from Not in My Name/Jewish Voices for Peace took the opportunity to point out to the badly outnumbered Zionist counter-protesters that far more progressive Jewish activists were present in solidarity with besieged Gaza and the local Palestinian community.

I nearly fell off the chair when I saw this on the New York Times website:

"Democrats in Senate Short of Votes for Stimulus Bill" by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders said on Thursday that they were short of the 60 votes needed to advance their own $157 billion economic stimulus package and would have no choice but to adopt a less expensive plan approved by the House. Still, Democratic Senate leaders said they hoped to secure some important changes to the House plan when they vote on it, probably on Wednesday....

So Bush wins -- and the American public loses -- again!

The Democrats, who held a hastily called meeting on efforts to aid the struggling economy on Thursday morning, also said that they had yet to reach agreement on a long-term extension of the Bush administrations terrorism surveillance program, which Republican leaders have set as a condition for moving the stimulus bill to the floor....

That's what is known as EXTORTION in my world!

Democrats have said such an agreement is close at hand....

Fucking damn DemocraPs!

Good for nothing!

The Democrats’ willingness to publicly lay out their floor strategy verged on the waving of a surrender flag, and suggested some concern that any delay in approving the House package would be dangerous politically, because it would leave the Democrats vulnerable to charges that they were impeding efforts to prop up the economy.

Yeah, but the obstinate and intransigent president isn't at fault for anything!

With the Obama endorsement of Ted Kennedy following in the footsteps of endorsements from party luminaries such as Claire McCaskill, Janet Napolitano, and Kent Conrad, it's clear that Hillary Clinton is not getting the support of some of the establishment Democrats she might have been counting on. This is an important development that is not just about campaign momentum. "Party luminaries" comprise about 800 of the delegates to the Democratic convention -- approximately 20% of the total. Up until now, it has been widely assumed that the party establishment would rally heavily to the establishment candidate, namely Clinton, providing her a necessary boost of delegates should the race remain close.

With a general revulsion to the Clinton's campaign tactics now settling in, that assumption is now questionable. Moreover, even if Clinton should ultimately prevail in a close contest, she and her husband have so alienated a significant number of Democrats that there is likely to be a significant swath of delegates on the floor in Denver who are going to need a lot of persuading to keep them from embarrassing Clinton in her moment of triumph.

It is a truism but it's not worth winning the battle if by doing it you're going to lose the war.

Oh, he only meant the DemocraPs; with the globalists on her side, the Bliderberger Queen Hitlery shouldn't have anything to worry about -- especially with a subservient MSM that already has the 2008 presidential script in hand.

They already know who is going to be "selected" the next president!

It is their job to shovel this shit and sell it to stoo-pid 'murkns!!!!!

The Associated Press, relying on anonymous officials, reported the lack of any ad buying on the Romney campaign's part. The Politico also confirmed this late yesterday evening.

Even more interesting, Madden also refused to say whether the campaign would be buying any ad time in any Feb. 5th state. Asked if Romney would buy any time, Madden said: "We don't telegraph strategic decisions like ad buying ahead of time."

This suggests the possibility that the campaign won't be buying any time in advance of the multi-state showdown that is likely to decide the race. At the least, this is a big boost for John McCain. At the most, it could amount to a possible admission that the Romney camp thinks the race is pretty much over.

Late Update: A Romney campaign official tells me that the campaign will be purchasing ad time today, though the official declined to specify how much and where.

Late Late Update: The Romney buy is in California, the crucial big state where McCain picked up the endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger today."

What were they waiting for?

That's the thing about businessmen -- they don't continue to plow their own money into a losing concern.

When Mitt does the cost/benefit ratio, he will quit sometime.

He will not blow his entire fortune on a losing bid for the presidency.

"One cable was damaged near Alexandria, Egypt, and the other in the waters off Marseille, France, telecommunications operators said. The two cables, which are separately managed and operated, were damaged within hours of each other. Damage to undersea cables, while rare, can result from movement of geologic faults or possibly from the dragging anchor of a ship."

About Me

All material published for educational purposes under Fair Use Doctrine.
Warning: Some commentaries may include profanity. I offer my apologies in advance for those who may be offended by the harsh language in response to outrageous lies.